I love the idea of travel logs and I’ve always been attracted to well written travel logs.
In the late 1990s, after studying in the Middle East, I spend several months in Europe on a long layover back to the U.S. I had my own On the Road moment if you will. During this wander I also read some of the classic travel logs like George Orwell’s 1933 Down and Out in Paris and London. This book in particular influenced how I travel. What I think about when I travel. What I seek out when I travel.
During this trip, I wrote extensively and often think of one day publishing that log. I crossed borders on boats and trains. I hitchhiked. I was robbed. I ate. I slept in parks and fields and once in a “lorry” as I stole a ride across from England to France with the white cliffs of Dover at my back and continued across France because I had little else to do.
But mostly I thought. I spent most of those months alone and so I was left with myself. And my personal thoughts grew into something more than just sounds in my head. When you are alone for months at a time in worlds far from ones you recognize your thoughts gain mass. They gain form. Upon reflection, I realized it is glimpsing these innermost thoughts produce classics.
I think of reading Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air or Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones (which I read on my own first flight to China). I recall George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London.
I travel extensively for work and so I thought I should keep a dialog of my travels. When I redesigned this blog, I included a travel section where I could specifically capture these writings. The problem is I’ve initially set it up as reviews of restaurants and hotels. But yesterday I started reading Paul Theroux’s the Kingdom by the Sea. And I once again realized it really the reviews I enjoy (reading and writing). It is the chance to stowaway with another’s thoughts. If but for a minute, these gifted writers introduce you to their traveling companion. Not dissimilar to the one I had as I slogged across Europe alone.
